Improve growth, yield and nitrogen use efficiency under different nitrogen regimes in sage with zeolite application

Due to the low efficiency of nitrogen (N) because of losses through leaching which also causes environmental pollution, it is necessary to use a suitable managemenpractices for nitrogen fertilizer application to minimize nitrogen losses through leaching. Sage is one of the most important and economical medicinal plants in the world. In order to investigate the application of zeolite to improve growth, yield and N use efficiency in Sage, the experiment was laid out as a factorial, randomized complete-block design with three replicates in 2018. Experimental treatments including N fertilizer (from urea source) at three levels (zero, 75 and 150 kg N ha-1) and zeolite at two levels (without zeolite and 10 t ha-1) were investigated. The highest plant height 19.90 cm, the number of lateral branches 19.87 per plant and the leaf area 1.38 cm were observed in the application of 150 kg N ha-1 and 10 t ha-1 of zeolite. The results showed that the zeolite application was able to help increase the yield of sage by N so the highest fresh and dry yield were observed of 150 kg N ha-1 and 10 t ha-1 of zeolite, 11144 and 2951 kg/ha, respectively. The highest soil and plant N concentration were 0.14 and 2.82 % in the treatment of 150 kg N ha-1 and 10 t ha-1 of zeolite. The highest N uptake was 86.30 kg/ha in application of 150 kg N ha-1 and 10 t ha-1zeolite, and the highest N use efficiency was 11.53 kg/kg in the application of 75 kg N ha-1 and 10 t ha-1 zeolite. The highest essential oil content and yield were 0.84% and 21.02 kg/ha, in the application of 150 kg N ha-1 and 10 t ha-1 zeolite. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the application of zeolite was able to prevent the growth, yield of soil N and efficiency of N consumption in the Salvia officinalis by preventing the leaching increasing its absorption and preventing the contamination of groundwater, and also reduce energy consumption.